I find working with postgraduate students to be very rewarding. On this page I provide links to past and present PhD students for whom I have served as either chair or supervisor (I have also served as committee member or outsider reader on many dissertations not listed here)

If you are interested in studing at Essex, I am willing to supervise any topics related to my general research interest. Please note that I have a strong preference for more general puzzles and research questions. Some students who contact me express an interest in doing research on explaining particular incidents or the behavior of individual countries. Although I can appreciate case specific research, it is very unlikely that I will know much about the particular incident/country that you are interested in. If your interests are very case-specific, then I probably would not be an apropriate supervisor for you. However, I may have more to contribute if you cast your research question in a more general manner, and try to think about what more general phenomenon the individual event/incident you are interested in could be considered a case of.

I am currently particularily interested in supervising research on the following topics:

  linkages between civil and transnational conflict
  disaggregated analysis of conflict
  spatial approaches to political behavior
  regime transitions and political change

  Govinda Clayton, "Horses for Courses: Disaggregating the Determinants of Mediation Effectiveness", PhD in Politics and International Relations, University of Kent, in progress (co-supervisor with Ismene Gizelis)

  Kaisa Hinkkainen, "Islamist Terrorist Recruitment in Western Europe", PhD in Government Essex, in progress

  Jule (Juliane) Krüger, "One-Sided Violence against Civilians", PhD in Government Essex, in progress

  Mauricio Rivera Celestino, "State and Societal Violence in Democratic Regimes", PhD in Government Essex, in progress

  Chih Mao Tang, "Small States, Major Powers, and Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific Region", PhD in Government Essex, in progress

  Sebastian Ziaja, "Democracy Promotion, Democratization, and State Fragility", PhD in Government Essex, in progress

  Kyle Beardsley, "Politics by Means Other than War: Understanding International Mediation", PhD in Political Science UCSD 2006, now at Emory University (co-chair with David Lake)

  Tobias Böhmelt, "International Mediation Interaction: Synergy, Conflict, Effectiveness", PhD in Government Essex 2010, now at ETH Zurich

  Cullen Hendrix, "Leviathan in the Tropics: Environment, State Capacity and Civil Conflict in the Developing World", PhD in Political Science UCSD 2008, now at the College of William and Mary (co-chair with Stephan Haggard)

  Nils Metternich, "Bullets and Ballots: Violence and Expected Electoral Outcomes in Civil War", PhD in Government Essex 2010, now a post-doc at Duke University

  Ulrich Pilster, "The Rational Design of International Alliances", PhD in Government Essex 2011, now a fellow at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), NATO

  Andrea Ruggeri, "Civil War, Polity Instability, and Opportunity: Temporal and Spatial Patterns", PhD in Government Essex, 2011, now at the University of Amsterdam

  Idean Salehyan, "Rebels Without Borders: State Boundaries, Transnational Opposition, and Civil Conflict", PhD in Political Science UCSD 2006, now at the University of North Texas (co-chair with Barbara Walter)

  Heather Smith, "Ratification of Global Human Rights Treaties: Signaling for Aid During Regional Crises", PhD in Political Science UCSD 2007, now at Lewis and Clark College (co-chair with Miles Kahler)